Code of Conduct

The Editor-in-Chief should declare any financial, personal or other relationships that might constitute a conflict of interest with the Editorship of the journal.

The Editor-in-Chief should ensure that all articles accepted for publication have been assessed by an editor.

The Editor-in-Chief should not make decisions regarding manuscripts about which they may have a conflict of interest. In such instances, a senior member of the Editorial Board should be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer-review and making decisions regarding acceptance or rejection.

Although the Editor-in-Chief may publish in their own journal, they should ensure that a senior member of the Editorial Board should be assigned to assume responsibility for overseeing peer-review and making decisions regarding acceptance or rejection of any manuscript submitted and/or co-authored by the Editor-in-Chief.

The Editor-in-Chief should ensure Editorial Board members are not involved with the peer-review or decision-making process of any manuscript where they have a conflict of interest.

Editor-in-Chief should provide a professional service to authors. Correspondence should be handled in a timely and respectful manner, and efficient and thorough peer-review carried out. Systems should be in place to ensure editorial staff absences do not result in a reduced service to authors.

Editor-in-Chief who operates a closed peer-review system for the journal should maintain the anonymity of peer reviewers.

The Editor-in-Chief should comply with the Committee on Publication Ethics’ Guidelines and Code of Conduct.

The Editor-in-Chief should have a mechanism for dealing with appeals against decisions, particularly decisions to reject manuscripts.